IFF Central Board meeting 4/2009 10th of December 2009

Place: Quality Hotel Västerås, Västerås, Sweden

Participants:

Tomas Eriksson President
Hans Botman
Per Jansson Treasurer
Risto Kauppinen
Stephen King
Renato Orlando Vice President
Filip Suman

Stefan Kratz Competition Manager
Merita Bruun Information Manager
John Liljelund Secretary General

Minutes

§ 1. Opening of the meeting

Mr. Eriksson opened the meeting at 09.00 and greeted the CB members welcome to the meeting.

§ 2. Approval of the agenda

The CB decided: To agenda was scrutinized, completed and approved.

§ 3. Minutes from the CB meetings:

03/2009 in Zürich, Switzerland (26.09.2009), (Appendix 1)

The minutes from the last meetings were scrutinized, approved and put ad acta.

§ 4. Economy

a) Financial report per 30.11.2009 (Appendix 2)

Mr. Jansson gave a short report on the financial report until the 30.11.2009 and felt that the progress is following the budget, with some costs related to the WFC and educational materials (This is Floorball and the IFF DVD) coming in December.

The CB decided: To approve the financial report per 31.08.2009.

b) Information on IFF claims – status November 30th, 2009 (Appendix 3)

Mr. Jansson gave a report concerning the situation of the IFF claims per 30.11.2009, stating that some countries are still lacking behind. Mr. Kratz expressed that since the last CB meeting the actions taken have brought in over 20.000 CHF. India has started paying their debts, Malaysia has promised to pay in January 2010, but Ukraine has not responded in any way.

Mr. Jansson proposed that if the countries with severe debts, have not started to pay off the debts until year 2007 by the end of February 2010, they will automatically be suspended from the 1st of March 2010.

The CB decided: To approve the report of the claims by 30.11.2009 and decided to inform the member associations that if there are member associations with severe debts and action have not been taken by the end of February, they will automatically be suspended by the 1st of March 2010.

§ 5. World Championships

a) WFC 2009 Västerås, Sweden

Mr. Jansson gave a short report about the ongoing 7th Women‘s WFC being played in Västerås, in Sweden. The championship is taking off when moving to the big arena. The IFF Office must be on place a few weeks in advance of the tournament, to guide the work of the organisers.

Mr. Suman gave a report about the ongoing WFC 2009 in Västerås, from the Jury point of view. Mr. Suman felt that the organisation is working well after a few days of some problems. He was especially glad that there are some non-European referees and jury member in the tournament. There have been a quite good number of spectators in the games with the home crowd. The main challenge will be to move for the bigger arena for the final matches. The LOC has expressed gratitude to the Jury and the IFF Office for the help given.

Mr. Orlando agreed with Mr. Jansson, but felt that it is important to convey to the organiser that it is always an IFF event, organised by the LOC for the IFF.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

Mr. Liljelund gave a report on the TV situation from the WFC. IFF has made an agreement with the host broadcaster (TV4) together with the Swedish Federation, in order to secure the TV visibility from the event. This is the first time as IFF is actively taking part as an order of the basic production services. IFF has negotiated with the TV‘s/federations from the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland and additionally with Eurosport. The following TV matches will be broadcasted abroad:

Eurosport The group match CZE – SWE (7.12.) and the semi finals (11.12.) and final (12.12.) on Eurosport 2
YLE/Finland Finnish semi final and medal match (if playing)
CzechTV Czech semi final and both medal matches (if playing)
Swiss TV Will show a IFF produced high-lights from all Swiss games and whole match on Sat 12th of December, if the Swiss are playing.

In addition to the above IFF has solely produce the Internet TV signal from all the matches in the tournament. This will be visible on an outside portal called Sverigewebben, which has been modified for the event in an international portal.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

b) WFC U19 Women 2010 Czech Republic

Mr. Suman gave a report on the preparations for the Women‘s U19 WFC to be played in Olomouc in the Czech Republic 4th – 8th of May 2010. Olomouc is situated between Brno and Ostrava. The organisation will strive to follow the line of good organised events.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

d) WFC 2010

Mr. Kauppinen informed about the preparations for the 8th Men‘s WFC to be organised in Helsinki and Vantaa in December 2010, which is proceeding well. The organiser has launched the logo and the slogan of the event – Magical Games WFC 2010, which expresses the communality of Floorball in the World. The ticket sales will start in March 2010.

Mr. Liljelund report about the agreement signed with the Finnish Floorball Federation concerning the WFC 2010. Further Mr. Liljelund informed about the discussions ongoing with the Finnish National Broadcasting Company Yleisradio Oy, which will act as the host broadcaster for the event.

Mr. Kratz reported about the actions taken concerning the qualification tournaments for the WFC 2010 in El Escorial (Spain), Singapore and Babimost & Wolsztyn (Poland). The qualifications in Europe will be organised as four day events, with 8 teams in each qualification. There are six teams taking part in the qualification in Singapore. The American qualification will be played in Hamilton, Canada as a two day event. All the above qualifications will be played during the international weekend in February.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

§ 6. EuroFloorball Cup

a) EFC 2010

Mr. Kratz reported on the practical arrangements concerning the EuroFloorball Cup 2010 qualifications, which are to be played in August and the work done to finding organisers for these. The problem is that we will only get the organisers, when the teams will know that they are in position to participate. So we will see development only by April-May.

Mr. Suman gave a short report about the actions taken by the RACC in order to develop the EuroFloorball Cup. IFF has invited for a working meeting with the presidents of the four biggest federations during the WFC and then will continue discussing the issue with the clubs in January 2010. He expressed that we need to have a top event, in order to be able to market it for TV and potential sponsor, but we at the same time need to keep the competition open for all federations. The number of organisers is also a problem and we can‘t extend the length of the tournament. RACC will look upon a proposal until the meeting in February, based on the meetings held so far.

Mr. Eriksson felt that we have already discussed the issues, but it is important that we will have a large number of participation.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

§ 7. Committees and Function reports

a) ExCo reports

Mr. Eriksson gave a report on the IOC Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark 3.-5.10.2009 and the recommendations the congress made. (Appendix 4 and 5). The IOC Congress was well organised, with good themes in working groups and an editorial committee giving a large number of conclusions from the working sessions. IFF had also contributed, through Mr. Renato Orlando, with an input to the proposals to the IOC Congress. There were over 10.000 proposals and only 277 were included in the documents for the IOC Congress. The bottom-line is that whatever the outcome of the 66 recommendations will be, it will be good for Floorball.

Mr. Eriksson asked the employees to leave the room, while he reported upon the negotiations held concerning the placement of the IFF Headquarters starting of spring 2010. Mr. Eriksson has held meetings with both the Maison du Sport in Lausanne and the Canton of Vaud, as well as with the Finnish Federation concerning the possibility of keeping the IFF Office in Helsinki, Finland. Mr. Eriksson expressed that there are two very good offers on the table.

The CB discussed the issue and was of the opinion that the IFF Office will eventually move in the future to Lausanne, Switzerland, but for especially human resources reasons and for the short term development the CB was of the opinion that the IFF Office would stay in Helsinki for the period 2011-2012 and to start discussion of opening a branch office in Lausanne.

The CB decided: To approve the report and decide upon to accept the offer of the Finnish Federation and keep the office in Helsinki, Finland for the period 2011 – 2012. Mr. Eriksson was given the task to inform the parties concerned.

b) Contacts to International Sports Organisations

Mr. Orlando gave a report about the third IF Sport Forum organised by the Sportaccord Convention, which was held in Lausanne on the 16.-18.11.2009. This year the IF Sport Forum concentrated on two topics – Youth and Sport and then Revenue Generation. There were a good number of lecturers and next to the in-depth information; it is a good way for net-working. It is important that there needs to be an IFF CB member and a representative from the office present at the IF Sports Forum. Mr. Liljelund added that there was a lot of information about how the other federations are organising and solving their problems.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

c) RACC

Mr. Suman made a proposal to make a decision about the number of directly qualified teams for the Men‘s WFC 2012, due to the fact that the system started in 1996 is ending by these WFC‘s in 2009. The CB needs to decide how to deal with the direct qualification system in the future. Based on the earlier CB decision 7 teams are directly qualified plus the winner of the B-division. Since there are no B-division any more, the RACC proposes that the top 5 teams in the WFC 2010 in Finland will be directly qualified for the WFC 2012. The reason for this is to have only important matches throughout the tournament. This decision doesn‘t concern the Women‘s WFC 2009, from which the seven best in the A-division and the winner of the B-division are directly qualified for the WFC 2011 in Switzerland. (Appendix 6)

Mr. Orlando felt it might be an interesting trial to change in this direction.

Mr. Botman thinks that the proposal is good and from a perspective in order to reach the Olympics in 2020, it is important that all teams apart from the organiser would have to clarify.

The CB decided: To approve the proposal that the 5 best teams in the WFC 2010 will be directly qualified for the WFC 2012. This system is also applicable in the Women‘s WFC 2011.

Mr. Suman gave a short report concerning the preparations for building the match schedule for the Men‘s WFC 2010, due to the fact that the Finnish Federation has proposed to play the quarter finals on different days due to spectator and media reasons. The RACC will, based on discussions with the organiser, bring forward a proposal for the match schedule.

Mr. Kratz gave the information that the Czech Floorball Federation has asked the IFF CB to postpone the decision of appointing the Women‘s WFC 2013 organiser until the CB meeting in May 2010, due to restructuring of the Czech Sports Confederation financial system. (Appendix 7)

Mr. Suman explained the present situation in Czech Sports and the actions to be taken by the Czech federation.

The decision for WFC 2013 shall, according to the time-line, be taken in the December 2009 meeting and the U19 WFC 2013 in the spring meeting 2010.

The following applications have arrived:
DUB/Germany has applied for the Men‘s U19 WFC 2013
CFbU/Czech Republic has applied for the Women‘s WFC 2013

The CB decided: To approve the reports and the related proposals.

d) RC

Mr. Botman gave an oral report on the activities of the RC and the plans for the coming year 2010, including the RC meeting to be held in Västerås from the 12.-13.12.2009. He was disappointed to hear the Ms. Katriina Sahala will leave the office and hoped that there will be a replacement soon, since there are a lot of items to be organised for the WFC 2010 qualifications. The RC has discussed the need to promote women referees and how to deal with this in women competitions. The development of the top level referees, and the international referees coming up, needs to be looked upon.

Mr. Botman presented the IFF Referee Education material (PPT), which has been processed jointly between the RC and the IFF Office and will be published after the WFC. This material can be adapted to the local needs, setting up the basic referee education.

Mr. Jansson asked whether there can be a mixed pair refereeing a International match.

Mr. Botman answered that at the moment there is not a possibility to have a mixed pair. The RC is now giving the referees a possibility to specialise on either Men or Women matches, which will open the doors for mixed pairs.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

e) Development function

Mr. Orlando reported on the planned Floorball Development Seminars for the year 2010, where discussions are held with Great-Britain, Russia and Slovenia to organise the seminars. The Development Seminars started in 2005 and will continue until 2010. So far through the Development seminars IFF has gained 8 new members. After 2010 a thorough evaluation will have to be made of the continuation of the Development Programme. Meanwhile the Development function will concentrate on the development in China, where there has been a lot of activity in Shanghai and Hong Kong lately. The development has to be steered closely, since all groups would like to create their own federation. The situation in India has also taken a direction, which will have to be discussed during the WFC qualification in Singapore.

Mr. Liljelund reported that the IFF Coaching and goalkeeping DVD has been published. IFF will sell the DVD for a self-copy price of 10 Euro‘s.

The CB decided: To approve the report and decided to approve the proposal.

f) Marketing function

Mr. Kauppinen gave an oral report concerning the work done for the preparation of the IFF marketing strategy. The marketing function has used an external working group consisting of marketing specialists, which has made some strategy framework steps, looking at the customer insights, the customer segments and starting to build on the Floorball Brand, in order to build a marketing strategy. The marketing strategy will be presented for the IFF CB meeting in May 2010.

Mr. King asked if there are considerations for including the AOFC in the process.
Mr. Kauppinen answered that the discussions will take place with AOFC during February in Singapore.

Mr. Suman asked what the ideas are to sell the IFF in the future. In addition we need to start looking at this more in detail.

Mr. Kauppinen felt that our aim to sell floorball globally was too early, therefore we need to sell the sport locally to reach the global market.

Mr. Liljelund informed about new approach which has been taken concerning the sales of marketing rights and commercials for the WFC 2010. IFF and the LOC are both using the same marketing agency, i.e. Infront Finland, which means that IFF and LOC have agreed to split the rights 30/70.

Mr. Jansson commented that it is a very big decision to take, which will also be a major investment for the IFF, so we need discuss this further.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

g) Medical committee

Ms. Bruun reported that we have performed a total of 19 out of the planned 20 of Out-of-competition tests made by IFF during 2009, having one player with already two miss tests. WADA is in the process of making an ongoing screening process for the Code Compliance until 2011, when they will come out with a new survey. The IFF Medical committee chair Dr. Frey will participate in the WADA TUE Chair committee meeting in Strasbourg on the 11th of December.

Mr. Eriksson felt that it is good that we are working hard in order to follow the WADA Code. Mr. Eriksson had a meeting with the IOC anti-doping responsible Dr. Ljungqvist

The CB decided: To approve the report.

h) Material function

Mr. Liljelund reported from the Development Board meeting held on the 9th of December 2009 in Västerås, where the Floorball manufacturers discussed the proposals by the IFF and SP for the Material Regulation 2010. The proposal is to approve the minor technical changes proposed by the material function and approve the Material Regulation 2010 to be valid from 1st of July 2010. (Appendix 8)

Mr. Orlando felt that the Development Board meeting went very well and that it has been fruitful to work with the manufacturers in this way.

The CB decided: To approve the report and approved the changes to the Material Regulation with minor changes, as proposed.

Ms. Bruun made a short report, on the preparations of the ispo Floorball Village 2010, to be held in February 2010, with a total of 12 manufacturers. The Village is built in the same ways as before, with star players for exhibition matches and test-zone for the public.

Mr. Suman asked what the investment is for the ispo.

Mr. Liljelund answered that for 2010, the development board has budgeted 35.000 CHF for the ispo.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

i) Athletes Commission

Mr. Jansson informed that the Athletes Commission has not had a meeting yet and we are struggling to find a meeting date.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

j) Information function

Mr. King reported that the IFF Floorball Information booklet - This is Floorball has been published. In addition IFF has received a lot of positive feedback for the Learn – Start – Play material and has started a discussion concerning a member‘s association‘s media guide made by IFF.

Ms. Bruun brought forward that there is a need to make a media guideline for the organisers.

Mr. Eriksson felt that we have now made a number of materials, but we need to actively inform our members about these.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

k) Equality function

Mr. Jansson informed that IFF did not receive any funds from the European Community for the Equality function. It is important that we will have some discussions prior to and proposals for the next General Assembly in order to improve the statutes.

The CB decided: To approve the report.

§ 8. IFF Office

Mr. Liljelund informed that Ms. Katriina Sahala has resigned from the position as Office Coordinator, due to that she has been head hunted by the Finnish Sport Confederation to join their International Department. Actions have been taken to fill-up the gap which occurred when Ms. Sahala will leave IFF in mid December.

Ms. Bruun gave a short report on the feedback questionnaire filled in by the IFF member associations, concerning the IFF Information services and the needs of the IFF members. The result of this survey will be presented at the IFF Presidents and Secretary Generals meeting in December.

Mr. Eriksson felt that this was a good way to collect feedback for how we are working.

The CB decided: To approve the reports.

§ 9. Member Federations

a) Members under suspension

Nothing to report.

b) New Member Applications

Mr. Liljelund reported that, the Iran Floorball Association has sent in their application for membership in the IFF. The documents of the Iran application, including the statutes and the game rules in Farsi, as well as the other documents needed.

According to our statutes, the CB can approve the applicant as a provisional member, giving the federation time to fulfil all criteria‘s for ordinary membership. (Appendix 9 a-b)

The CB decided: To approve Iran Floorball Association as IFF provisional member nr. 50.

Mr. Liljelund reported that, the Indonesian Floorball Association has sent in their application for membership in the IFF. The documents of the Indonesian application include the application letter, the list of the IFA Committee members and a document for the application of recognition of the National Sports Confederation. There is not at this moment any other document available, but it has been promised that they are on their way. According to our statutes, the CB can approve the applicant as a provisional member, giving the federation time to fulfil all criteria‘s for ordinary membership. (Appendix 12 a, b, c, d)

Proposal: To approve Indonesian Floorball Association as IFF provisional member nr. 51.

Mr. Liljelund informed that there has been formed a new national governing body for Floorball in New Zealand on October 11th 2009, during the Wellington Open. The New organisation is called Floorball New Zealand. This organisation seeks to take over the membership of the IFF, since the original New Zealand Floorball Association has officially been struck off the registers in 2004 by the New Zealand authorities. (Appendix 10 a, b, c)

The office proposes that the CB will decide to change the New Zealand membership to Floorball New Zealand. Additionally the office proposes to clean off the debts of New Zealand, since there has not been any activity between 2004 and 2009.

The CB decided: To approve the report and to change the provisional membership of New Zealand from the non-existent NZ Floorball Association to Floorball New Zealand and decided to remove the old debts to the former NZ federation to the IFF.

§ 10. Any other business

Mr. Eriksson gave a report about the 7th IFF Presidential and Secretary Generals meeting which will be held on Friday the 11th of December 2009 in Västerås. The following Agenda has been sent to the participants. (Appendix 11). Mr. Liljelund informed the CB of the running of the Presidential meeting, which the CB agreed to.

Mr. Suman has received the information that the WUC 2012 has been awarded Czech Republic.

The CB decided: To approve the reports.

§ 11. Next CB meeting

The CB decided: The next CB meetings will be held on the 2nd of February in Singapore in connection to the AOFC qualifications for the Men‘s WFC 2010.

§ 12. Closing of the meeting

Mr. Eriksson thanked the CB for a good meeting and closed the meeting at 12.45.